Jimmy Kimmel talks about John Cena and Trump in a late night monologue

Jimmy Kimmel

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Jimmy Kimmel recaps his favorite moments from the 2024 Academy Awards during the 2024 Academy Awards Jimmy Kimmel Live! Monday’s monologue, including a John Cena nudity gag and an angry Donald Trump tweet.

“We had John Cena on stage naked, and somehow Trump managed to be the biggest man of the night,” Kimmel told the crowd.

At the ceremony the night before, which Kimmel hosted for the fourth time, Cena took the stage seemingly naked, covering himself with a winner’s envelope to present the award for Best Costume Design. The gag was a reference to Robert Opel at the 1974 Academy Awards, Kimmel confirmed Monday, saying he wanted to pay tribute to the incident on its 50th anniversary.

Kimmel also spoke on Monday about how difficult it was to convince the network to greenlight the Cena joke, saying he was constantly told that the envelope in front of Cena’s body needed to be bigger.

“They keep asking us to make the envelope bigger and bigger, but first of all I have to say congratulations, John Cena,” Kimmel quipped. “Rarely does an idea literally push the envelope.”

Later at the ceremony on Sunday, Kimmel also took the opportunity to read a message from Trump, which was posted on the former president’s social media platform, Truth Social.

“Has there ever been a worse host than Jimmy Kimmel at the Oscars,” Trump wrote, and Kimmel later read to the audience. “His opening was a less-than-average person trying too hard to be something he’s not, and could never be. Get rid of Kimmel and maybe replace him with another washed-up but cheap talent from ABC, George Slopanopoulos. He made everyone on stage look bigger, stronger and more… Brilliance.

On Monday, Kimmel joked to the audience that Trump’s message was “also his wedding toast to his son Eric,” and that he “wrote this because he was upset that I didn’t mention it on the show, and no one mentioned it on the show.” the offer. “He wasn’t getting any attention.”

Elsewhere in his late-night monologue, Kimmel told the audience that his favorite moment of the evening was hearing Arnold Schwarzenegger pronounce the world “Godzilla” when presenting the award for Best Visual Effects, and that his fan-favorite moment featuring Macy the dog was… He pre-recorded it because during rehearsals, the puppy would bark all the way through his monologue.

Kimmel also addressed the backlash he received for joking about the Transformers franchise — “Could it have been possible for an A.I. to write… Transformers: Rise of the Monsters“He asked at one point on Sunday, then said, ‘Yes, the answer is yes.'” “I guess I assumed that (Transformers fans) would be too busy masturbating to watch the Oscars,” he told the audience on Monday.

justin timberlake, Jimmy Kimmel Live! Tonight’s musical guest opened the show’s monologue and told the audience that he would be covering hosting duties as Kimmel was at home recovering from his busy night. A few moments after Timberlake’s monologue, Kimmel appeared and asked him to leave.

“From the beginning, you’ve always been my favorite Justin,” Kimmel told Timberlake before leaving the stage, to which the pop star replied: “Thank you, you’ve always been my second favorite Jimmy.”